Free Seeking the Mythical Future by Trevor Hoyle

later.’
    â€˜There would seem to be a strong precognitive element there,’ Queghan said abstractedly; inwardly he was perfectlycalm. There were none of the usual tell-tale symptoms. He went on, ‘In any case, if it is meaningful, it would appear to be in your favour.’
    â€˜Is there no way you can tell for certain? Isn’t there a test of some kind, a procedure …’
    â€˜I’m afraid not. The whole basis of detecting psi phenomena is that their availability for testing is in inverse ratio to the sophistication of the techniques employed to test them: the nearer we get in scientifically establishing their existence the further away they recede. It’s like testing someone’s sexual prowess. The fact of telling someone that you’re going to evaluate his sexual performance under laboratory conditions is the one thing guaranteed to defeat the purpose of the exercise.’
    â€˜But that’s the dilemma I’m facing!’ Brenton said hopelessly. ‘You have the faculty to understand, to appreciate it, whereas I find the whole proposition untenable. Where’s the
proof
, I keep asking myself. I need to see the equations, to analyse and interpret them.’
    â€˜Well there we are,’ Queghan said, and he shrugged. ‘If that were feasible, if the equations could be formulated, you and I would become mere abstractions, a neat mathematical formula and not much else. We would cease to exist in any real sense. We’d have as much substance, say, as two fictional characters existing as mind-waves in someone’s brain. I can’t prove that I exist and neither can you; but we think that we do and that’s what matters.’
    â€˜I think therefore I am,’ Brenton said. ‘That’s a very shaky scientific proposition,’ and Queghan could only agree.
    *
    He travelled home in the litter – litter being the LST, or Light Steam Transport. It was noiseless, gave off no fumes, and had a closed energy system that recycled its own waste material. He kept to the controlled M-grid because it was easier to let the litter follow the beam and not have to worry about other vehicles that might get in the way. It was safer, too, just in case he went suddenly into projection. This sometimes happened when he was least expecting it and he didn’t relish the thought of being the victim of a litter smash.
    It had always seemed, ever since he was a child, that the ability to project himself into heightened states of consciousness was very much a mixed blessing. It was a gift not readily understood outside the Institute, and even there it was regarded by some with envy, suspicion, even hostility. It was still, even now, ‘unscientific’, which was odd when it was considered that psi awareness was really quite common and not confined to a special category of ‘gifted’ people. It was highly developed in children, for example, but gradually atrophied as they grew older through non-use, in much the same way that a muscle becomes flaccid if not exercised regularly. This general misunderstanding led to resentment, for many people believed that a richness and variety of extrasensory perception was being denied them.
    The reality was more prosaic. In most instances, the evidence presented to Queghan’s senses was only a piece, a fragment, of a larger, deeper, unfathomable mystery. They thought him capable of miraculous insights which was a simplistic view of what actually happened; true, he was open to the symbols all around, but it was the interpretation of those symbols which was difficult, for they rarely, if ever, formed themselves into a coherent pattern.
    As he had tried to explain to Brenton, such manifestations as meaningful coincidence, precognition and the laws of causality (in fact, the entire bag of tricks known as parapsychological phenomena) by their very nature defied assembly into a logical and scientifically-based